You know how when you are really excited for an event and you think about how great it will be and what it'll be like and then, once it actually happens, it's not as good as you planned? Well....Bay to Breakers Weekend in San Francisco was one of those times that was a TOTAL EXCEPTION! College Roomie deemed it "the perfect day" and I think she might have been right. 
Once we got in the starting corral, the chaos began. The traditional "tortilla toss" began and there were corn tortillas flying everywhere. College Roomie took one in the head. The energy there was amazing. There were 33,000 registered runners and a total of 80,000 spectators and people who joined in the race along the route. It was amazing and everyone was just having a great time! 
Somehow, our friend Nomad found us in the crowd of people and started the race with us. He is actually a runner and finished like 20 minutes ahead of us, but hey, at least we got our pre-race group photo! 
And then we were off!
There are so many great costumes at Bay to Breakers, we tried our best to capture a few before the race started and along the way.
Once we got in the starting corral, the chaos began. The traditional "tortilla toss" began and there were corn tortillas flying everywhere. College Roomie took one in the head. The energy there was amazing. There were 33,000 registered runners and a total of 80,000 spectators and people who joined in the race along the route. It was amazing and everyone was just having a great time! Somehow, our friend Nomad found us in the crowd of people and started the race with us. He is actually a runner and finished like 20 minutes ahead of us, but hey, at least we got our pre-race group photo! And then we were off!
There are so many great costumes at Bay to Breakers, we tried our best to capture a few before the race started and along the way.
There were also a lot of people who chose to forego costumes, or any other clothing. I'll spare you any photographs, but one of my favorite exchanges of the weekend occurred at about the half mile mark:
Tiffany: OMG, College Roomie--ugly naked guy!!
College Roomie: Get a picture!
Tiffany: He's running too fast!
College Roomie: Go faster---I'll catch you! GO GO GO!
Little did we know by the time the race was over, we didn't think twice about seeing ugly naked guys running around!
The most challenging portion of the race is the Hayes Street Hill. If you've been to San Francisco, you know that hills are no joke! People had suggested that we walk the hill because it would just be too difficult to run. Well, it might be for some, but not for the hard core girls who train at high elevations. We ran that hill like champs (and quickly looked for the water station near the top!)
TONS of people come out to watch the race. Many bring cow bells, signs and air horns to cheer you on. My favorite spectator, of whom I have no picture, saw a guy running along who had decided not to wear a costume (if you get my drift) and yelled, "Eww! Gross. Dude, put that thing away!" I love San Francisco!Tiffany: OMG, College Roomie--ugly naked guy!!
College Roomie: Get a picture!
Tiffany: He's running too fast!
College Roomie: Go faster---I'll catch you! GO GO GO!
Little did we know by the time the race was over, we didn't think twice about seeing ugly naked guys running around!The most challenging portion of the race is the Hayes Street Hill. If you've been to San Francisco, you know that hills are no joke! People had suggested that we walk the hill because it would just be too difficult to run. Well, it might be for some, but not for the hard core girls who train at high elevations. We ran that hill like champs (and quickly looked for the water station near the top!)
Those who live there have Bay to Breakers parties and cheer on the racers. This party looked the most fun to us and, had we not been responsible adults with jobs to get back to, we might have found that house after we were done running!
We decided to document the race by photographing ourselves every mile and crossing the finish line. Here are those shots for your enjoyment. 
In the end, we did better than we had hoped! We ran the whole race (including the Hayes Street hill) and finished in the top 10,000 runners (top 9,000 to be more exact)! Nomad was in the top 3,000. Woo hoo! Just think how fast we could have been had we hadn't have been taking all of of the pictures necessary for the blog!
We found a random dude to be our "U" for OSU....his photographer friend got me all confused and didn't tell me the S was backwards. That's why I'm usually the "U"!
We found a random dude to be our "U" for OSU....his photographer friend got me all confused and didn't tell me the S was backwards. That's why I'm usually the "U"!
Anyway, Bay to Breakers was an incredible experience. College Roomie is already talking about next year's race and Nomad deemed it "one of the top 5 things he's done in his life." Hard to argue with that. 
Another Bucketlist checkmark down: Run Bay to Breakers
Another Bucketlist checkmark down: Run Bay to Breakers
No comments:
Post a Comment